Chapter 167 Secret Room Passage
The eighth floor of the castle serves as the Gryffindor lounge, which is usually noisy and filled with various students wearing scarlet robes. Today, there was a touch of green standing out of place in the corner of the tall statue protected by armor. The classmates who were passing by all gave strange looks.
"Greengrass?"
Just hearing the sound of the Fat Lady's portrait mechanism, a girl with a head full of fried curly hair slowly walked out of the Gryffindor lounge.
"I heard them say that a Slytherin girl was outside, and I guessed it was you. By the way, I forgot to mention, thank you so much for saving me last time..."
Hearing Hermione's unstoppable series of words, Astoria sighed helplessly, raised her hands and made a stop gesture in front of Hermione's eyes.
"Sorry, I'm a little excited..." Hermione's cheeks turned red and she smiled a little shyly.
"Is Ginny Weasley here? Maybe you can help me call her out, thank you." Astoria said softly, her royal blue eyes looking at Hermione motionlessly and intently.
"Ginny—well...she just went out this afternoon, so I don't have a clue."
"Get out?" Astoria frowned slightly, her eyes filled with annoyance. She repeated Hermione's answer in a low voice as if to herself, then turned around to leave.
"Wait a minute -" Seeing Astoria once again trying to leave without looking back, Hermione finally took the initiative to hold her arm. The arm was horribly thin. She blinked in surprise and secretly relaxed her strength.
"What's wrong?" Astoria didn't get the answer she wanted, and the enthusiasm in her eyes weakened a lot. She tilted her head and glanced up at Hermione with a calm tone.
"I just want to know about the basilisk... Harry and I have searched a lot of information, and we have also gone to the second floor of the castle to check, but we still haven't found the basilisk. Maybe you can tell me what to do, anything. Any clues are fine!”
Obviously, Hermione Granger is an extremely simple, kind and sincere person. She confided everything she knew to Astoria, hoping that Astoria, a Slytherin, could help her. What...
"Ginny didn't..." Astoria accepted the words almost subconsciously. Perhaps realizing something was wrong, she immediately paused, her eyes darkened, and she spoke slowly.
"Sorry, I don't know either. Why don't you leave these world-saving matters to the professors? Don't forget, you are only second-year students."
Why not tell Hermione the truth? Astoria thought that maybe she was still controlled by the weird diary, or maybe it was just her Slytherin identity that was secretly causing trouble.
But the most critical thing now should be Ginny Weasley's safety. How could he not see the person whom he had obviously arranged to meet at noon yesterday?
Thinking of the location Hermione Granger just mentioned, Astoria immediately turned around and left towards the stairs.
"Eh... Greengrass!" Looking at the retreating figure, her golden curls bouncing as she ran, Hermione thought for a moment, then turned back to the lounge, deciding to discuss countermeasures with Harry Ron first.
The distance from the eighth floor to the second floor shouldn't be too far, but today the stairs in the castle were possessed by some unknown evil. They were spinning around so Astoria had nowhere to go, and she was running around in circles without knowing where she was going. go.
The original bronze wooden door made a creaking sound, and many professors were seen stepping into the faculty office one by one with serious faces.
Through the gap in the door that opened from time to time, Astoria caught a sharp glimpse of the office walls that seemed to be stained with blood under the dim candlelight. Astoria froze in place, subconsciously leaning back in fear.
"Miss Greengrass, why are you here?" came the reassuring voice from behind. Professor McGonagall held Astoria steady and walked in front of her to block the scene from the crack in the door.
"I...I'm lost." Astoria was stunned and said helplessly.
"Well... the stairs in the castle really bother many students..." Professor McGonagall waved her wand slowly, and a light green line followed the stairs, as if to lead Astoria back to the lounge. route.
"Miss Greengrass, don't stay out for too long. I also want to inform everyone to return to the dormitory as soon as possible."
"Okay, Professor McGonagall."
After receiving Astoria's response, Mag nodded with satisfaction and patted her shoulder to signal her to leave quickly.
Her bones will remain in the secret chamber forever...
Astoria kept replaying the blood stains on the office wall in her mind, and her pace became faster, almost running recklessly unlike a Slytherin.
……
"Leah! Astoria, what are you in a hurry for?"
Draco, Pansy and Daphne were walking from the library with books in their arms. If Astoria paid close attention to Pansy's hopeless expression, she could guess that they were tired from studying. Sneaked out to rest.
But Astoria was not in the mood to observe at the moment, or even to respond to Draco's concern. She pushed Daphne's shoulder away and quickly ran towards the steps that looked like a normal staircase.
"Hey, what is she doing like a reckless and stupid lion!" Pansy said with an irritated face, pointing at Astoria's back as she disappeared at the top of the stairs.
"Are you okay? Daphne." Pansy straightened Daphne's crooked school robe, but her eyes shone with secret joy, as if she wanted Daphne to complain about Astoria with her.
"It's okay." Daphne waved her hand casually, but her eyes were fixed on the direction Leah left, frowning in confusion.
"You guys go first, I'll go take a look."
At this moment, Draco said something surprising. I saw him clenching his fists and frowning, as if he had hesitated for a long time, staring at the stairs around the corner and about to chase after him.
"I'll go too." Daphne also spoke. When Draco raised his eyebrows slightly and turned his head to look at her in surprise, Daphne curled her lips awkwardly, "She is my sister after all."
Although they didn't get along much, Daphne could tell that something wasn't right about Astoria's look just now.
Seeing Draco and Daphne walking away from him and going down the stairs, Pansy's eyes widened and she tilted her head blankly.
"Wait, I'm going too."
Pansy's face turned red with anger, but she still hurried to catch up before the steps of the stairs changed.
At this moment, Draco was so grateful that the stairs in Hogwarts Castle did not have complicated and gorgeous handrail decorations, allowing him to see all the rotating steps at a glance.
Soon, their eyes were locked on the figure with golden curly hair diagonally below.
"Leah!"
"Astoria, stop running!"
Unfortunately, the distance between the two sides was too far, and the sharp and noisy singing of the portraits on the wall was mixed together, so they could not stop Leah at all.
When he saw Astoria's figure disappearing at the end of the stairs on the second floor, Draco hurried away in a hurry.
If he remembered correctly, the unconscious Leah and the Basilisk appeared in the corridor on the second floor that night!
"Draco, slow down!" Pansy, who was wearing wedge-heeled leather shoes, couldn't take too big a step and could only call helplessly to Draco, who was walking faster and faster in front of her.
……
"You... aren't you? One of you runs faster than the other!"
Pansy was almost too tired to even finish a sentence. She was panting heavily, squatting on the ground while grabbing her knees, and kept complaining against her head.
However, no one paid any attention to her, which was rare.
The air was almost impossibly silent, except for the cold wind blowing in front of her that made her shiver.
"Pansy, look!" Daphne took half a step back nervously, clutching Pansy's sleeve tightly, a little scared.
Pansy slowly raised her head and saw that the jade-white pool that was originally placed in the center of the abandoned bathroom on the second floor sank into the ground, revealing a huge circular pipe, which was pitch black and bottomless.
"Merlin's socks! What the hell are these!"